This question was asked by @mike@flipboard.social on Dot Social's latest episode about the blogosphere on Fedi.

@johnonolan@mastodon.xyz: "we wanted to connect Ghost blogs to each other, but then we discovered ActivityPub"

@pfefferle@mastodon.social: "we wanted to connect WordPress blogs to each other, and ActivityPub has been the most successful attempt"

[paraphrased for brevity]

Did you catch the subtext? Both those answers, and my own answer with NodeBB contain the same seed idea... that we originally wanted to connect our software with itself only. We went through years of building a company and vying for profitability that it never occurred to us to work towards cross compatibility with anyone besides out own software.

Then ActivityPub came along and quite literally expanded the potential for the entire endeavour a hundred-fold, because not only are you connecting your own software to each other, but every other ActivityPub enabled software in existence. Blogs, microblogs, forums, image boards, etc. all with a built-in user base ready from the get-go.

It's no wonder that after discovering AP, it becomes the protocol to utilise.

This question was asked by @mike@flipboard.social on Dot Social's latest episode about the blogosphere on Fedi.

@johnonolan@mastodon.xyz: "we wanted to connect Ghost blogs to each other, but then we discovered ActivityPub"

@pfefferle@mastodon.social: "we wanted to connect WordPress blogs to each other, and ActivityPub has been the most successful attempt"

[paraphrased for brevity]

Did you catch the subtext? Both those answers, and my own answer with NodeBB contain the same seed idea... that we originally wanted to connect our software with itself only. We went through years of building a company and vying for profitability that it never occurred to us to work towards cross compatibility with anyone besides out own software.

Then ActivityPub came along and quite literally expanded the potential for the entire endeavour a hundred-fold, because not only are you connecting your own software to each other, but every other ActivityPub enabled software in existence. Blogs, microblogs, forums, image boards, etc. all with a built-in user base ready from the get-go.

It's no wonder that after discovering AP, it becomes the protocol to utilise.

This question was asked by @mike@flipboard.social on Dot Social's latest episode about the blogosphere on Fedi.

@johnonolan@mastodon.xyz: "we wanted to connect Ghost blogs to each other, but then we discovered ActivityPub"

@pfefferle@mastodon.social: "we wanted to connect WordPress blogs to each other, and ActivityPub has been the most successful attempt"

[paraphrased for brevity]

Did you catch the subtext? Both those answers, and my own answer with NodeBB contain the same seed idea... that we originally wanted to connect our software with itself only. We went through years of building a company and vying for profitability that it never occurred to us to work towards cross compatibility with anyone besides out own software.

Then ActivityPub came along and quite literally expanded the potential for the entire endeavour a hundred-fold, because not only are you connecting your own software to each other, but every other ActivityPub enabled software in existence. Blogs, microblogs, forums, image boards, etc. all with a built-in user base ready from the get-go.

It's no wonder that after discovering AP, it becomes the protocol to utilise.